Alternate Takes 10.24.09: Horror Sequels

Posted by Shawn S. Lealos on 10.24.2009

With the sixth installment of the Saw franchise upon us, Shawn S. Lealos looks at horror sequels that actually surpassed their predecessors in this week's Alternate Takes.



Welcome to Week 74 of Alternate Takes. I am your host Shawn S. Lealos and you have now entered my world.

There is one more week until Halloween and this weekend opens the sixth installment of the Saw franchise. A lot of people seem to hate the franchise but many more love it enough to keep it a constant money maker every Halloween, so there must be something to it. My guess is what makes Saw different from other franchises, such as Friday the 13th or Halloween is that it is a serialized story. With Jason or Freddy or Michael, it is usually the same story over and over again with the killer hunting a new group of kids. Saw actually has built an ongoing storyline with the ultimate plan of the original killer John Kramer and his replacement Mark Hoffman being realized as the story progresses. There are the same old puzzle torture devices in each movie but, at the end of the day, there is a lot more under the hood than just a serial killer hunting kids. I am not saying it is that good, or better than the aforementioned horror films, but at least it is original.

The counterprogramming this weekend is strange. First is another horror type movie with the weird looking Crique du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant. For the adults who don't care about horror movies, there is Amelia, the biopic of Amelia Earhart, who disappeared while attempting to fly her plane around the globe. For the kids, Astro Boy hits theaters, a manga styled film based on the classic cartoon about a robot boy who must find his place in the world. Some of you also will get the chance to see the new Lars von Trier mind screw Antichrist.



With Halloween right around the corner, I am going to focus on horror the next two weeks. This week, in celebration of Saw VI, I am going to look at horror sequels. Very few horror movies produce great sequels. As great a character as Jason is, the original Friday the 13th easily surpasses its sequels. Other movies like Candyman and Texas Chainsaw Massacre are great horror films without a decent sequel. However, there are a few horror franchises that had solid films follow the originals. Some are better than the first and others add to the glory of the franchise. This week my Alternate Takes are five horror sequels that are just as good, if not better, than the originals.

5. Saw III (2006) Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman Written by James Wan and Leigh Whannell Cast: Tobin Bell, Shawnee Smith, Angus Macfadyen, Bahar Soomekh, Donnie Wahlberg, Dina Meyer, Leigh Whannell, Costas Mandylor Saw is an unfairly persecuted horror franchise. It operates in a serial nature, each movie filling in clues from previous films leading to one grand scheme at the end. I prefer movies such as Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street but there is no denying these movies are simply rehashes of previous installments whereas Saw has much more under the hood, an end game in sight and each movie is a payoff of the ones that came before. The first Saw has a simple premise, two men locked in a room given pieces to a puzzle they must figure out in order to live. It is a game parlayed by the mysterious Jigsaw, a man whose goal in life is to see if people under great duress can make the right decision or take the selfish way out, sealing their doom. The second movie is where the pieces to the puzzle began to fall into place as we learn more information about Jigsaw and are presented with a Cube styled movie, a group of people who end up being unable to work together and failing their tests. However, the idea becomes brilliant with the third film in the franchise. Instead of giving us criminals who we don't mind seeing die, we get a man whose young son was killed when hit by a car. His test is to forgive the people responsible for his hurt or sentence them to die. However, the more important moral decision is to finally let go of the pain he has cooped up inside and become a good father and husband again. It is a moral conundrum of both a man and, because this is Saw, the labyrinth of people involved means nothing is ever how it seems. Saw is an amazing story, piling loose end after loose end upon each other until - hopefully - the pieces all form a master plan that pays off in the end. You have to watch every movie to appreciate the storyline but, even if it doesn't pay off well at the end, you have to appreciate the third movie, the high point of the entire franchise

4. Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) Directed by Chuck Russell Written by Wes Craven, Bruce Wagner, Frank Darabont Cast: Heather Lagenkamp, Craig Wilson, Patricia Arquette, Robert Englund, Larry Fishburn There is no doubt the original Nightmare on Elm Street is a horror classic never matched or duplicated by any of its sequels. However, the franchise could easily have died after the second installment, Freddy's Revenge. Gone was the nightmare mythos with Freddy killing his victims through their individual fears. It is replaced by Freddy trying to possess a young boy in order to kill the local kids. The directing is terrible, the script is horrid and the acting is piss poor. The franchise shouldn't have survived this feeble attempt. Then the third movie hit theaters and all was well in the world once more. Nancy is back. There is a group of fresh faces who can actually act which makes the movie a huge step up from the second one. Freddy is back to doing what he is supposed to do, attack the kids in their dreams. But there are areas making this the best sequel of the bunch. Freddy, for the first time, shows a mean spirited, sarcastic personality. He is no longer just an evil son-of-a-bitch. He is now an evil SOB with a vicious side that likes to insult and torment the kids before he kills them. However, what makes this movie great for me (especially when I first saw it way back when) is the kid's band together in the dream realm and fight back! Hell yeah, they take it to Freddy in his own world. The lure of slasher movies is usually to see how the kids die and to cheer more inventive kills. Dream Warriors takes us on a different path where we actually want to see what these kids can do to fight the bad guy in his own world. This is not a typical slasher and is so much more than what the children of the eighties were used to. There is another Nightmare sequel that proves to be great in New Nightmare, but if I were asked to choose only one movie in the entire series to ever get to see again, it wouldn't be New Nightmare, nor would it be the fantastic debut film. If I could only choose one, it would be Dream Warriors.

3. Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn (1987) Directed by Sam Raimi Written by Sam Raimi and Scott Spiegel Cast: Bruce Campbell, Sarah Berry, Dan Hicks, Kessie Wesley, Ted Raimi, Denise Bixler, Richard Domeier I have been on record saying that I absolutely love Evil Dead, even more so than its "superior" sequel. Many "best of horror" lists have Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn ranked towards the top of the list. Even Empire Magazine has it in their list of Top 50 Movies of All Time. That is great because with Evil Dead 2, director Sam Raimi is able to take what he tried to accomplish in the first movie and do it with a proper budget, much to the delight of horror fans everywhere. I just prefer the first movie, with all its warts, because it is those warts that give the movie its charm. BUT, I will never discount what Raimi accomplished with the second movie in this trilogy. The second movie is not really a sequel. In the original movie, Ash goes to the cabin with his friends, accidentally wakes up the Evil Dead and everyone is killed. In the second movie, it simply retells the story. Ash goes to the cabin in the woods with his girlfriend, accidentally wakes the Evil Dead, his girlfriend is killed, more people show up and believe Ash did it and then they die. Finally, at the end, Ash is teleported to the past and we get Army of Darkness. What makes this second movie so much better than the first one in many people's eyes? First, the FX is greatly improved. Gone are the trick shots to achieve the effects Raimi envisioned and replacing them are state-of-the-art special effects. The props are not homemade and look much more realistic than the ones from the first movie. The story is less generic and, with the addition of new people in the middle of the movie, we are kept guessing. Everything from the script to the improved acting to the great monster effects helps this movie rise above Indie horror and into a great horror film. I will always take the bad acting, improvised effects, trick shots and low budget horror everyday of the week. But I will never pretend my preferred movie is ever better than its amazing sequel. Evil Dead 2 deserves all the praise it gets. It is the movie where Sam Raimi officially arrived.

2. Dawn of the Dead (1978) Directed by George Romero Written by George Romero Cast: David Emge, Gaylen Ross, Scott H. Reiniger, Ken Foree, Tom Savini No one doubts that Night of the Living Dead is a groundbreaking horror movie. George Romero, in one movie, created a new kind of monster. There were always zombies throughout horror history, but they were always voodoo created zombies, brain-dead automatons following the orders of a higher power. With Night, George Romero made them creatures that return to life to feed on the living, no one controlling them and only one way to kill them. Like his current output or not, George Romero created the modern day zombie. Dawn of the Dead, the second movie in Romero's zombie series, may not be as iconic as its predecessor but it is the better movie and the high mark of Romero's career. The film takes a strong look at the downfall of society and includes a scathing indictment of consumerism, all while being one of the most bloody zombie movies of its time. The story centers on four individuals who take refuge in a giant shopping mall, locked and secured as a safe haven from the zombies. The movie then shows how, even when people go to a safe place, they still manage to break down and end up destroying themselves. George Romero has a bleak outlook on humanity as evidenced throughout his movies. In the first film, the sole survivor of the zombie attack on the farmhouse is gunned down by rednecks the morning after. When the helicopter is flying to the mall, they pass a group of rednecks and military officers who are making killing zombies a party. The world at the time of Dawn has become a disgusting place. Once our small group arrives at the mall, they try to go about living as they normally would, almost in a paradise of mass consumerism. Yet, they continue to bicker, argue and eventually lead a ruthless biker gang to break in, letting the zombies in as well. The original end of the movie was going to feature the final two survivors killing themselves but was changed to allow them to escape. The suicides would have fit in well with the structure of Romero's world. Romero paints his post apocalyptic world as a nihilistic place, with little hope and no room for heroes. Day of the Dead takes that idea to the extreme but never comes close to the masterful presentation of Dawn of the Dead, the greatest zombie movie ever made.

1. Bride of Frankenstein (1935) Directed by James Whale Written by William Hurlbut and John Balderston Cast: Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Valerie Hobson, Ernest Thesiger, Elsa Lanchester, Gavin Gordon, Douglas Walton Frankenstein presents as original a character as you would see in the thirties. As created by author Mary Shelley, he is a creature more sinned against than a sinner himself. Created by Dr. Frankenstein (the monster is not called Frankenstein, that is just the name of his creator), The Monster is hampered by having the brain of a deranged lunatic. Despite this handicap, he still is able to get through life and almost find peace until an accident with a little girl causes the town folk to hunt him down and kill him. While the movie is a spectacular allegory, its sequel is a complete masterpiece and one of the greatest horror films ever made. Bride of Frankenstein starts with Mary Shelley explaining to Lord Byron and Percy Shelley that the story of Frankenstein, and the moral lessons she seeks to impart, are yet to be concluded. The Monster survives the attack and is still on the run. More so in the sequel than in the original, The Monster is always the victim. The Monster defends himself, saves a girl only to be attacked and shot, is captured and chained up, manipulated by the true villain of the film (Pretorius), and even worse is feared every step of the way because he is different, unusual and will always be an outsider. Even when he finally gets his Bride, she shrieks in horror upon viewing The Monster. It finally ends with The Monster giving up on life and destroying everything and everyone around him. The movie remains James Whale's masterpiece, the greatest movie in his amazing filmography. The movie Gods and Monsters tells the story of Whale, focusing on his creation of this movie and there is a lot of speculation of the themes prevalent throughout the film. There is much Christian imagery throughout the picture but questions remain whether Whale was comparing The Monster to the fate of Christ or as a mockery of Christ, a creature created by man and not God. Regardless of any undertones, the movie presents the story of Frankenstein as a greater story than the original movie by far. James Whale always seemed bored with the supernatural horror and added humor to amuse himself, finishing with the look of the Bride herself. She is dressed to remind us of her origins, wearing a ghostly floor length robe, mummy-wrapped hands and arms, and hair frizzed out in electric shock and shot through with lightening streaks of silver. It is a jaw dropping creation and remains iconic with audiences today. Bride of Frankenstein has been called one of the best gothic horror movies ever made. I consider it the greatest horror movie during the Universal Monsters era.

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